um, well, let's hope that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and not more forgetful.

I'm sure there will be three recap shows to catch you up.

I'm sure there will be three recap shows to catch you up.

ahahaha. so true. am i wrong or did Lost really start that trend of recap episodes being billed as "new" episodes?

I think it was an ABC invention, they've done the same for Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy.

I thought Jack was making a statement that he knew was "ironic." I figured his dad was dead at that point.

Jack also tried to claim that his dad prescribed drugs for him. Do addicts usually engage in that much irony while desperate for a fix? It seemed like more than a wry reference to me.

I loved Hurley, loved Charlie, loved Danielle's nonchalant elbow to Ben's face. Ben makes no sense. Sixteen years of keeping a secret, then "this is your mother"!? What was the point of that secret?

And how the hell did the disturbed custodian's kid become the boss of the others? Why do non-aging Batmanuel and indestructible Eyepatch take orders from him? What's the story behind these people Hanso considered "natives"? How could Ben and Batmanuel step in and use Hanso resources without the company knowing about the massacre of their people?

Color me dubious about this new approach to the timeline. I'm even less confident that any of these questions will be answered in the new short seasons if they open up the future (the present?) to the story.

I really hated the resets on Alias. I kept watching but it still bugged. Is this evidence of some deep seated fear JJ has about shows growing stale?

My perception of Alias is a little different since I marathoned the entire series on DVD, but the thing that worked was that it always came back to Rambaldi. It was utterly absurd, but it did give the show a focus.

Is JJ even involved with Lost any more?

Jack also tried to claim that his dad prescribed drugs for him. Do addicts usually engage in that much irony while desperate for a fix? It seemed like more than a wry reference to me.

I took that as a blatant lie. He had his dad's prescription pad. He told the pharmacist something like, "I didn't write the prescription, Christian Sheppard did! Call his office."

I didn't see his dad anywhere around - and they love to trot out Christian whenever they can. I knew Jack's dad was dead and gone.

I took that as a blatant lie. He had his dad's prescription pad. He told the pharmacist something like, "I didn't write the prescription, Christian Sheppard did! Call his office."

Sure. But it's an entirely different bluff if he's taking about a dad who's been dead for three years than a dad who's still practicing. And why would a prescription pad still be around if dad were really, most sincerely dead?

all I can say is that I was pretty sure Jack was in the future the whole time. He looked crappy and older than the past flashbacks.

It also occurs to me that they way they wrote the ep, they seemed to equivocate (probably to confuse viewers) regarding how long they have been off the island. The chief of surgery's reactions to Jack lead me to believe that he hadn't been at the hospital very long. But Kate's volvo-driving self made me think it perhaps had been a lot longer.

The writers literally could go either way on this.